R. Grace Morgan - Beaver, Bison, Horse: The Traditional Knowledge and Ecology of the Northern Great Plains

Advance Praise for Beaver, Bison, Horse

R. Grace Morgans important study of the impact of beaver, bison, and horse on the lifeways of Indigenous people of the Northern Great Plains remains relevant in our times. Morgan deftly analyzes the long-term ecological history of this region, where animals, humans, fire, water, and drought have struck important interrelationships. Her insights can significantly influence our assessments of the economic trajectories and environmental sustainability of the Great Plains in the modern age. George Colpitts , author of Pemmican Empire: Food, Trade, and the Last Bison Hunts in the North American Plains

Morgans Beaver, Bison, Horse is a brilliant, thorough investigation of the powerful ties that bind humans to their wild brethren on the Northern Plains. In synthesizing traditional knowledge with her own groundbreaking fieldwork, Morgans book serves as both a meticulous reconstruction of the precolonial world and a road map to the restoration of North Americas keystone species. Like a beaver pond spilling its banks, this book overflows with ecological insight and wisdom. Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

An important book. The detail on beaver habitat manipulation... is rich and nuanced and cannot be found elsewhere. Norman Henderson, author of Rediscovering the Great Plains

A fascinating analysis of the ecological knowledge and religious practices of Indigenous people. Rosalyn LaPier, author of Invisible Reality: Storytellers, Storytakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet

Morgans work takes archaeological interpretations beyond basic descriptions of past technologies and foodways to considerations of how Indigenous Plains Peoples interacted with and maintained their landsand why they occupied their lands as they did. David Meyer, author of The Red Earth Crees, 18601960

An early example of interdisciplinary research, Morgans work continues to offer insights into traditional life ways on the Northern Plains. Brilliant essays by James Daschuk and Cristina Eisenberg add to the significance of this book. Candace Savage, author of Prairie: A Natural History of the Heart of North America

Dr. Morgan distills the complex cultures, histories and ecology of the prairie biome into a readable book that will appeal to all levels of understanding. Anyone with an interest in grassland ecology and Indigenous people will find in this volume a scholarly, yet accessible, addition to the literature. Eldon Yellowhorn, co-author of Turtle Island: The Story of North Americas First Peoples

University of Regina Press designates one title each year that best exemplifies the guiding editorial and manuscript production principles of long-time senior editor Donna Grant.

BEAVER, BISON, HORSE

The Traditional Knowledge and Ecology of the Northern Great Plains

R. G r ace Morgan

2020 University of Regina Press

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanicalwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or placement in information storage and retrieval systems of any sort shall be directed in writing to Access Copyright.

Cover art: Beaver by Szymon Bartosz; Bison Walking Out of the Mist by Effect of Darkness; and White horse, black and white portrait by Laure F. / all Adobe Stock.

Cover and text design: Duncan Campbell, University of Regina Press

Copy editor: Alison Jacques

Proofreader : Kendra Ward

Indexer : Patricia Furdek

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Beaver bison horse : the traditional knowledge and ecology of the Northern Great Plains / R. Grace Morgan.

Names: Morgan, R. Grace, 1934-2016, author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200301438 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200301500 | ISBN 9780889777880 (softcover) | ISBN 9780889777941 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780889777903 ( PDF ) | ISBN 9780889777927 ( EPUB )

Subjects: LCSH : Grassland ecologyGreat Plains. | LCSH : Traditional ecological knowledgeGreat Plains.

Classification : LCC QH104.5.G73 M67 2020 | DDC 508.315/30978 dc23

University of Regina Press, University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, s4s 0a2 tel: (306) 585-4758 fax: (306) 585-4699 web : www.uofrpress.ca

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. / Nous reconnaissons lappui financier du gouvernement du Canada. This publication was made possible with support from Creative Saskatchewans Book Publishing Production Grant Program.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Publishers Note on Terminology

In 2018, the publishing industry saw the release of Greg Youngings influential text The Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing by and about Indigenous Peoples. In this 2020 publication of R. Grace Morgans important research into the ecological impacts of beaver, bison, and horse on the Indigenous populations of the Northern Great Plains, the publisher has endeavoured to reflect the current preferred terminology in Youngings guide where it was deemed possible, while at the same time trying to maintain the integrity of the authors original text and her voice as it was at the time of writing.

Foreword

James Daschuk

Grace Morgan has written an ecological lament for a lost way of life in an environment that no longer exists: the prairies of western Canada prior to contact. The relationships that she illuminates among humans, beaver, bison, and later horses are key to understanding the ancient ecology of the Northern Great Plains. They also shed light on our current and precarious occupation of the prairies in this age of climate uncertainty. Today our political leaders debate the true impacts of climate change as we continue headlong with industrial farming using genetic modification and other scientific methods to buffer the impacts of drought and other climatic anomalies in the 21st century. This book points to both what was and what might have been, to sustainable land management practices that kept Indigenous communities protected for thousands of years from climatic variability. This is the story of traditional environmental knowledge at its most elegant.

As with so much Indigenous knowledge and so many ancient practices, the balance among species was forever lost as the modern world economic system took the North American Plains into its grasp. In a real sense, this is the story of an extinct ecology that can never be remade. The disappearance of the bison, the defining species of western North America, is widely recognized as the greatest environmental catastrophe to befall the continent. Almost a century earlier, at the turn of the 19th century, the extirpation of the beaver from the grasslands not only signalled the loss of a commercially valued species but also marked the end of a truly Indigenous way of life that used the species as the centre of an ancient system of water management in an arid and potentially dangerous environment.